After the re-establishment of the New Fourth Army, there were a total of 7 divisions, of which 6 divisions were merged into 1 division less than 8 months after its establishment. This merger incident has attracted people's attention, and some people believe that the main reason why the 6th Division of the New Fourth Army was merged by the 1st Division was that the command level of *** was not as good as Su Yu.
However, is this statement accurate?
After the rebuilding of the New Fourth Army, not only did it gather famous generals, but its total strength was also expanded. Among them, the Independent Brigade was adapted from the 5th Brigade of the Founding General Liang Xingchu, and the commanders of the 7 main divisions were also famous generals.
Among these division commanders, Su Yu, Zhang Yunyi, Huang Kecheng, Peng Xuefeng, ** Zhang Dingcheng, etc. are all famous generals at the level of founding generals. However, the situation with the 6th Division was somewhat different, although it had only the strength of more than 8000 people, it lost 1 brigade commander and 1 brigade commissar in one battle.
This division was merged into the 1st Division only 8 months after its establishment, and why?
Although the scale of the 6th Division of the New Fourth Army is less than that of most of its brother troops, its heritage is also profound, and the brigade originates from the troops of the Northern Jiangsu Command, which is the predecessor of the Jiangnan Command of the First and Su Yu.
Although one of the 3 brigades was weaker, the overall personnel were neat. The 6th Division of the New Fourth Army originated from the Jiangnan Command and the Anti-Japanese Rescue **, although there are only 2 brigades with more than 8,000 people, but compared with the 7th Division, which has only 1 brigade and more than 3,000 people, its strength advantage is obvious.
However, compared to several other divisions, the 6th Division lacked a brigade of 4,000 men and could be overstretched in battle.
Judging from the configuration of the squad and the results of the battle, there are certain problems with the 6th division of the **. Although *** himself is a strong general, his 6th Division has no other powerful generals and chiefs of staff besides him.
In contrast, other main divisions such as Su Yu's 1st Division, Huang Kecheng's 3rd Division, and Peng Xuefeng's 4th Division all had strong chiefs of staff and generals. Judging from the total number of enemies destroyed, the performance of the 6th Division was also inferior to that of the other main divisions.
Despite the excellent military command skills shown by *** during the guerrilla warfare, his 6th Division did not shine as brightly as the other main divisions in terms of performance.
The influence of the area of activity of the New Fourth Army was due to the geographical unfavorable location of the southern Jiangsu region, which included many military forces of the Japanese army and the puppet army. The region has the big city of Songhu in the east, Wuhu in the west, the Yangtze River in the north, and the Tianmu Mountain in western Zhejiang in the south.
However, the division of the areas of activity of the divisions of the New Fourth Army is reasonable, and each division has its own base areas and strategic advantages. Su Yu's 1st Division is in the Soviet-Chinese base area, and has the foundation laid by **, Chen Pixian, Guan Wenwei and others;Zhang Yunyi's 2nd Division was in the Huainan Suwan Base Area, adjacent to the 5th Division of the New Fourth Army;Huang Kecheng's 3rd Division was in Huaihai, Yanfu and Huaibei districts in northern Jiangsu;Peng Xuefeng's 4th Division was based in the Huaibei area, and the 3rd and 4th Divisions were each other's horns and backed by the Shandong base area.
The 5th Division was self-contained on the Hubei-Henan border, far away from several other divisions, but had a vast hinterland. The 7th Division was active in the Wanjiang region, relying on the Dabie Mountain, Chaohu Lake and the Yangtze River, and could attack, retreat and defend.
In contrast, the 6th Division of the ** is located in the most dangerous area in southern Jiangsu, not only with the military strength of the Japanese puppet army, but also with natural barriers such as Songhu, Wuhu, the Yangtze River and Tianmu Mountain in western Zhejiang.
This greatly limited the activities of the 6 Division.
Due to the strategic adjustment of the New Fourth Army, the development of the 6th Division was affected somewhat compared with the 1st Division. The geographical location of southern Jiangsu is not ideal for survival and development, and it is surrounded by the Japanese puppet army on three sides, and the pressure is huge.
Therefore, the New Fourth Army decided to change course and move eastward. This was also the direction that Yan'an pointed out to the New Fourth Army at that time. As a result of this strategic adjustment, the 18th Brigade finally chose to cross the Yangtze River north in search of a more suitable environment for survival and development.
Although this has brought great difficulties to the 6th Division, the strategic readjustment of the New Fourth Army is based on the consideration of the overall situation and for the long-term development of the New Fourth Army.
During the Anti-Japanese War, the 6th Division of the New Fourth Army faced severe difficulties in southern Jiangsu, and due to the sacrifice of both military and political officers, the focus of work was on the military headquarters. In order to solve this problem, the New Fourth Army decided to merge the 6th Division into the 1st Division, which was under the unified command of Su Yu.
This decision strengthened the strength of the 6th Division, and also allowed Su Yu to better command this hundred-battle lion team. Eventually, the 6th Division developed into a well-known column in the Central and East China Field Army.
Although the 6th Division of the New Fourth Army was merged with the 1st Division, this was mainly due to objective factors.